Wexford GAA

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Wexford GAA
Brendan Martin Cup
Camogie:O'Duffy Cup

The Wexford County Board of the

county boards of the GAA in Ireland, and is responsible for Gaelic games in County Wexford
. The county board is also responsible for the Wexford county teams.

Wexford is one of the few counties to have won the All-Ireland Senior Championship in both football and hurling.

The county hurling team last won the All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship in 1996.

The county football team has won five All-Ireland Senior Football Championships, with the most recent win achieved in 1918.

History

Wexford teams classic kit

Hurling has been played in Wexford from medieval times. Evidence of this can be found in the hurling ballads of the 15th and 16th centuries.

King George III shouted "come on the yellow bellies" at an exhibition match near London, in which the Wexford hurlers were wearing yellow ribbons. Apparently, the real reason they are called the 'yellow-bellies' is because one D Coffey declared it back in 1982.[3]

Football

Clubs

Clubs contest the Wexford Senior Football Championship. As of 2020, three clubs have eleven titles each.

No club has won a national or provincial title at senior level, but Rathgarogue-Cushinstown became the first Wexford football club side to reach an All Ireland Football Final in 2020 as they reached the junior All Ireland Football Final.

County team

Team of Wexford, All-Ireland Senior Champions 1916

Wexford had one of the greatest football teams in the history of the GAA in the 1910s, winning six consecutive

World heavyweight boxing championship, trained that team, which featured Fr Ned Wheeler, Aidan Doyle and the O'Kennedy brothers, Gus and Seán, as players. The latter was the team captain. The feat of six consecutive Leinster SFC titles was only equalled in 1931, when Kildare won the sixth in a sequence that had begun in 1926.[5]

Wexford's last major football success was winning the Leinster SFC title in 1945. From then on, the game of hurling took precedence in Wexford and as a consequence the fate of the Wexford footballers was to descend into obscurity for many decades.

Hurling

Clubs

Clubs contest the Wexford Senior Hurling Championship. The Rathnure club has the most titles.

Buffers Alley won the 1988–89 All-Ireland Senior Club Hurling Championship.

County team

Plaque on Rowe Street Lower, Wexford town, commemorating the founding of the county board in 1886.

Hurling is one of the most prominent sports in Wexford. This is in evidence in several one-sided results over the years: Kildare were beaten by 14–15 to 1–1 in an 1897 Croke Cup match. The

the closing minutes
.

In the 1970s, the distinctive red-haired Tony Doran was the star as Kilkenny and Wexford played ten Leinster finals in succession. In 1984 they claimed that the final whistle was blown prematurely when they were beaten by a single point in the Leinster final.

In 1996 Wexford, led by Liam Griffin and captained by Martin Storey, brought the Liam MacCarthy Cup back to Slaneyside for the first time since 1968; they were waiting 28 years. Cork, Kilkenny and Tipperary have dominated the honours in recent years.

Davy Fitzgerald took over as manager of the team for 2017, and made progress by reaching the Leinster Final for the first time in nine years. In the final they played Galway. Fitzgerald was appointed after the departure of Liam Dunne, who also played a huge part[clarification needed] in their recent success.[6]

Wexford's most recent hurling success was in the Leinster Final of

2019 when they defeated Kilkenny. In the Leinster semi-final, a draw in Wexford Park between Wexford and Kilkenny made it a rematch for the final. However, hurling in Wexford has been on the slide since 1996, their last All-Ireland success, and the Leinster title in 2004 simply papered over the cracks.[7]

Camogie

After winning promotion from intermediate in the late 1950s, Wexford won their first

.

Notable players include

, All Star award winners[8] Áine Codd, Mags Darcy, Mary Leacy, Ursula Jacob. Una Leacy, Claire O'Connor, Catherine O'Loughlin, Katrina Parrock and All Ireland final stars Mary Walsh and Gretta Quigley.

Under Camogie's National Development Plan 2010–2015, "Our Game, Our Passion",[9] five new camogie clubs were to be established in the county by 2015.[10]

Wexford have the following achievements in camogie.

Ladies' football

Wexford have the following achievements in ladies' football.

References

  1. ^ "The 'Yellow Bellies' and the Hurling men of Cornwall". History Ireland. Retrieved 16 June 2011.
  2. ^ "Yellow Bellies". Ask About Ireland. Retrieved 16 June 2011.
  3. ^ Enniscorthy Guardian, 2006
  4. ^ Wexford Four in a Row Archived 20 July 2008 at the Wayback Machine
  5. ^ Smith, Raymond (1968). "Chapter 4 – Wexford's Four-in-a-row". The Football Immortals. Dublin: Bruce Spicer Ltd. pp. 50–61.
  6. ^ "Davy Fitzgerald named new Wexford manager". RTE.ie. 7 October 2016. Retrieved 2 December 2016.
  7. ^ "Leinster SHC final: Fanning fires wonderful Wexford past the Cats to glory!". Hogan Stand. 30 June 2019. Retrieved 30 October 2020.
  8. ^ All-stars on camogie.ie
  9. ^ Irish Independent March 29 2010: Final goal for camogie
  10. ^ National Development Plan 2010–2015, Our Game, Our Passion information page on camogie.ie, pdf download (778k) from Camogie.ie download site
  11. ^ a b c d e "All-Ireland Senior Camogie Championship: Roll of Honour", RTÉ, 9 May 2008.
  12. ^ 2011 final Wexford 2–7 Galway 1–8 Report in Irish Examiner, Irish Independent, Irish Times, Camogie.ie, RTE Online Archived 3 January 2012 at the Wayback Machine, Preview in Irish Examiner Irish Times Irish Independent
  13. ^ 2011 final Wexford 2–12 Antrim 0–15 Report in Irish Times

External links